Apr 4

Apr 4 Phillippa, Napier

‘Whakamoemiti’ – to give thanks. It’s my favourite word. It means to be grateful and give thanks for what you have, instead of worrying about what you haven’t got.

I’m Phillippa, I’m 47 and I’m a teacher.

At the moment, my husband and five of our six children are at home in Hawke’s Bay. Our eldest, Tem, he’s in Wellington.

Before the lockdown, I was working at a primary school. My class has 21 kids in it, They’re Year 5, 6 and 7 – so all between about nine and twelve years old. I’d leave the house by 7.30am at the latest and get home around 4.30pm, picking up my two youngest kids from their various after school things on the way. Usually, they’re the only two living at home. I’m loving having the others back from university.

Now that we’re in the lockdown, my work will change. During the Rahui, we’re getting in touch with the parents through Facebook, posting ideas and challenges to keep the kids going. Our Principal set a challenge where you do 100 squats, 100 press ups, 100 second plank, 100 star jumps and 100 sit ups every day. We only had one day to get a home learning pack together for our students. The home learning packs had photocopied worksheets, School Journals, an exercise book, a pen. We asked our whānau to come and pick up these home learning packs on Tuesday, I think it was. Then that was it. This is our new reality, for a while.

Right now, at home, we are cleaning a lot. I’m cooking lots too, cooking everything from scratch because, well, I feel I should. There are a lot of mouths to feed and you can’t just say, ‘Oh, I’ll just pop down to the supermarket to get that thing’, so my outlook on that has changed. Now, I’ve got to plan what we’ll have for dinners, for seven adults, for a much longer period of time. So yeah, I’m doing a lot of stuff around home. Keeping busy, doing things like … preserving tomatoes, baking bread, trying new recipes. I also started growing seedlings of kai and I will put these into the mara (garden) once they are big enough. Trying to be more sustainable.

A huge change for me and my whānau was that we were unable to stay for a tangihanga for our beautiful nephew who passed away just before the Rahui. We were unable to take him to his marae because the marae had been closed. We were only allowed small numbers when he lay at home, this is so contrary to our tikanga. We had whānau members who were unable to come for fear of Covid-19, we were live streaming and this was the first time I had seen this at a tangi. We all had to leave before the Rahui and my whānau had to bury their son, brother, nephew, mokopuna, our taonga without all of us who wanted to be there. His own sister was unable to fly back and was alone in Sydney watching her brothers tangi via live stream. Heartbreaking.

In our house, I think we’re all very aware of each other, because we haven’t done this for years. Or ever, really. We’re all trying to be kind, speaking nicely to each other and just realising how lucky we are. We’ve got a home. We’ve got food. We have two beautiful dogs. Our dogs are like … really? Another walk? But no, they’re loving it too. Lots of attention.

Before this, we would catch up with whānau and friends or we’d go to Mahia to see more whānau. Obviously, that’s all stopped. We had a quiz night the other night where all seven of us chose a category and wrote 10 questions. We had Marvel movies, NZ History, Linguistics, Iconic Moments, Music, Geography and Te Reo Māori. Who knows how many flats there are in an A flat major scale! Not me.

Last night, my husband and I had a date night down the other end of the house. We said goodbye to all the kids, like we were going out. It was a bit ridiculous. Fun though. He had his speaker system going, which meant he put his phone in a bucket. Who needs a UE Boom when you’ve got a bucket?

The worst thing to run out of? Of course, it would be food or water. The basics. But also, I wouldn’t want to run out of positivity. ‘Whakamoemiti’ – to give thanks. It’s my favourite word. It means to be grateful and give thanks for what you have, instead of worrying about what you haven’t got.

Looking ahead, I’m feeling positive about our prime minister prioritising people over money. I’m really proud of that. I look at all those people who are at risk and I’m really glad we have done this lockdown for them. And for us. It’s like our Gran, Joy. She’s someone’s mother, she’s someone’s grandmother, someone who we love and adore and want to keep healthy and alive. So that for me is the biggest positive right now.